i remember clearly that water was rising very quickly it was a matter of seconds i survived because we saw a broken window and the sailors started pushing people out through it at that moment waves pushed me up on the surface and then i saw that the board was already underwater. over half the bulgaria's two hundred eight passengers and crew including the captain his wife and child never made it out meanwhile as the arabella another pleasure boat arrived at the scene she was surrounded by people screaming and drowning unable to reach the banks of the vast river three kilometers away. as we approached it was hard to distinguish in the dark water people who were alive from the rubble that was floating around people were in panic when we rescued them in a state of shock some suffering from other traumas they were all covered in oil fuel that was leaking from a sunken ship it was a terrifying picture i have to say despite a huge search and rescue operation after the initial survivors were picked up

a few others were found. the divers and cranes working in this water have been trying to recover just something of the lives lost and families destroyed in those few terrible minutes but they've also been working on the question the cost so much why did the bulgaria sink and sink so fast. as the list of bodies recovered from the ship grew so did the number of revelations about an ageing dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses and people connected with the ship came forward with damning accounts of its poor condition and the stingy management who forced it to keep sailing. i became captain of the vessel in two thousand and seven the ship hadn't even been renovated for a while before that there were big problems with the engines and power generators repeatedly mention that to the management and even had an argument with the port authorities say they were lied to the ship was only supposed to carry one hundred.

forty people but was loaded with over two hundred they were told it was carrying twenty more tales of bound including a broken engine tricity generators failing so that no s.o.s. signal or tunnel instructions could be issued and blocks emergency exits criminal cases have been opened and arrests being made into the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reach the scene before the arabella didn't pick up a single person that reports the crew members instead took pictures on their mobile phones whatever you have is a good review and you will all the passengers were shocked there were about seventeen people on a raft many hundreds of cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the board passers by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now started up with it will come the potential for answers but also terrible memories

in particular associated with the ship's play room where a group of children were gathered when the ship sank. just some of the young victims in what will go down as one of russia's worst and most avoidable shipping disasters tom bottom party. will bring you our full interview with the captain of a ship that saved seventy seven people from drowning in a bald river in our mind it's time here on our team. and it's also online at r.t. dot com where we've got updates on all the news we're covering as well as video records and analysis can also follow us on our you tube channel as well as facebook and twitter. is the new.

britain's government is denying it was too close to rupert murdoch's media empire as it scrambles to distance itself from the firm that's mired in phone hacking claims but records show prime minister david cameron held more than twenty meetings with murdoch executives in the past year murdoch has spanned the past forty eight hours apologizing with full page ads in british newspapers and meeting the family of a young murder victim whose voicemail was intercepted the media moguls now deployed p.r. gurus to rescue news corp's reputation before facing scrutiny from m.p.'s about his papers on ethical methods there is a gap on britain's news shelves this sunday after murder case the only x. the best selling news of the world as claimed swirled of illegally tapping phones

of crime victims and dad soldiers' families as laura amad reports it's a watershed moment for the an easy relationship between britain's politicians and press. but every media outlet in town t.v. redo even the sky. when thought imitates life the long running simpsons takes a shot it's oh no rupert murdoch aka montgomery burns in an episode broadcast apparently coincidentally this week. but it's not the only old piece of timing in the extraordinary phone hacking case that seems to get more scandalous every day the list of something like four thousand names which the police have have since about two thousand and four two thousand and five and yet they promise facie evidence of criminal activity by these individuals and boy by the murdoch empire. and yet they have not acted on it so why now just as the

murdoch deal to take control of satellite t.v. giant b. sky b. short to go ahead his rival the guardian newspaper releases catastrophic allegations of a moral journalists and their shady practices that when the deal collapses the times for example which is money you could have transferred some of the profits from. investing in the times for example the guardian or the daily telegraph. it's not just rival newspapers who stand to gain from murdoch's empire crumbling the b.b.c. could retake t.v. territory lost to b. sky b. and the labor party which was wounded by years of relentless attacks by murdoch papers can finally take revenge but where will all this lead we should be.

good that would suit the government just fine the british press is famous for its shop teeth and no holds barred doggedness particularly where its own government is concerned prime minister david cameron has all but shut down the press complaints commission and already talks of statutory controls to govern print journalists back in springfield mr burns is thwarted as the townspeople open up their own newspaper and he's almost right we possible can truly the media. rupert murdoch. beautiful murdoch found as did mr burns that you just can't buy all the newspapers those outside his control have been gunning for him for years and this time they may have succeeded just as he looks set to consolidate control.

a lot section of the case media markets hold out for months ahead and it's all over the hidden scandal now revealed that the police have known about it. nor ever its. richard addus who runs a media education firm believes it's naive to assume it's only the tabloids which are capitalizing on the dodgy data. where this does become a question for national security is the idea that police are selling private phone numbers and private contact details of people like the royal family and the prime minister obviously is not necessarily the same to sell these things to a newspaper as it would be to sell them to a terrorist organization but if you can do one you may be able to do the other so it's very serious the whole edifice of news international is deeply intertwined with the downing street machine all that has yet to come out and will cause a lot more headaches but i think what people talk to and. expecting is for the

scandal to go up through the chief executive of news international to james murdoch and james murdoch himself many people say should step down whether he's for. this skate without serious damage is also doubtful although i don't think he's going to retire or leave the helm of the company. plenty more had including a story of injustice and survival reports from an ancient arab community that's being aligned up as a luxurious israeli resort almost half a century after palestinians were forced out of. libya's rebels became the legitimate power holders in the country in the eyes of more nations after the u.s. and more than thirty other countries recognize them on friday at a diplomatic meeting in a stamboul the alliance of western and arab nations working on the crisis announced it would deal with the opposition until an interim authority is in place the recognition by the contact group also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of gadhafi is frozen assets in u.s.

banks but political commentator ted rall says the money and status won't change the situation on the ground. this is really a radical shift from an international standpoint the united states usually doesn't extend diplomatic recognition to it a regime that is not in the accountable that isn't in power and doesn't even seem likely to be able to achieve power anytime soon but you can look at the situation in afghanistan during the one thousand nine hundred six to two thousand and one civil conflict there between the taleban in the northern alliance the northern alliance were the former regime that had power in kabul and they enjoyed diplomatic relations with the west even though the taleban controlled ninety five percent of the country it's almost just wishful thinking and frankly if i were a diplomat i would find it disturbing it's a bizarre situation if the u.s. knows who these people are they're not seeing and certainly there's no doubt that traditionally there's always been a very high component to jihad. around benghazi so it's realistic to

assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing how it should be skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to end up in the right hands and really going to have . the high level recognition of the rebels may bolster their spirit but it's a different story in combat fierce fighting for a key is to an oil town has ended with heavy casualties among the opposition it's thought france is now trying the talking tactics of the libyan regime because forces failing to shift gadhafi is daniel bushell reports from paris. i think you can not tell me which. books is like bragging they'll destroy their opponents they're often wrong and gets a nasty surprise i. french foreign minister should pay boasted france would be a encroached days weeks the wars into

a fourth month no final round inside nicolas sarkozy with his western allies seeing short little opponents fighting back well it's not just an embarrassment for sarkozy it's an embarrassment for all nato for the whole west paris even admits being libya's rebels but on some somalia. wench to libya for training within the last two or three years. documented we have to fly records and everything else so it seems strange in many ways the whole western support of some of the rebel groups in libya must be questioned because in some cases i think we are effectively arming al-qaeda. it's all making a mockery of the un vote on foreign intervention in the country. giving. none of. this. witnesses nato

bombing of libya as causing widespread atrocities for every one military person that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians for all it's categorically ruled out saying the troops protect predict is the only way mail to break the libyan deadlock the moves the splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of key partners italy admits invading libya was a mistake russia abstained did the u.s. vote. bombs would bring havoc in libya. killed support. for the election is just noise months away so voices that a successful war could resurrect his childe says instead one paper writes libby is becoming a slow motion crutch for the president. so. will

this is libyan spring is turning into a. paris. in a few minutes we ask if one death can do america's afghan mission after having his eyes half brothers killed by his own guard party reports and how puts the u.s. on the back foot in tackling the taliban. the clock is ticking for america's rival politicians to agree on the next move and sorting out its soaring debt congress needs to raise a current fourteen point three trillion dollar debt ceiling to avoid defaulting and president obama wants parties to ignore their differences to avert armageddon the leading credit rating agencies are already threatening to downgrade america's aaa credit score for the first time in over ten years they say there's a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively by seek mellor from the

business insider website says both democrats and republicans understand the danger is further borrowing the dangers of whether. the impact on the u.s. economy the world economy in the global economy really depends on what the credit agencies do. you know we heard from moody's on wednesday and then from s. and p. both warning severe consequences if the government doesn't raise the debt ceiling in time including a possible downgrade from the government's aaa rating and that increases the cost not just for the federal government but for seven thousand across the country the united states i don't think anybody thinks united states is getting away with this any longer there. sort of reached the point where every everybody in both parties agrees that the debt is just too high and they're just they can't borrow any more you can't be borrowing for you know the sort of annual expenditures it's not a sustainable model for any country if this debt ceiling goes up or if the u.s. credit rating is downgraded then that would have you know sort of the current of the current recession and slow down the recovery. things are

a little better in europe with italy now the focus of stopping the eurozone heading into oblivion roams approved a tough seventy billion euro cuts package to avoid a debt wiped out if the euro zone's third largest economy and could prove too big for its neighbors to bail out meanwhile ninety european banks have failed stress tests to see if they can survive another financial crisis financial writer patrick young says the italian people's response to the budget cuts will. there will be one significant difference between the people who take to the streets between greece and italy and that is that greece at least thank goodness the taxi drivers don't go on strike where is nuclei expected almost everybody is going to end up on strike and it's going to be absolutely chaotic the only way they can slip this through is perhaps because we do have this long lead in time until the cuts really start to make an impact in two thousand and thirteen but i think the problem is in the meantime a large amount of the sort of the leftist opposition in italy for see the fact that

silvio berlusconi many of the reasons most of which are outside of the direct fiscal reason are well i mean he's a wounded animal at this point in time and in some ways i think that he's going to be finding it very difficult to hold his government together there are big problems in western europe they haven to be are definitely to the east everyone not so fortunately expect further to the crisis because the epidemic the contagion seems to be spreading and we have no political leadership seeming to do with that. let's now take a look at some other stories from around the world to police used tear gas and shot rounds into the air to disperse a crowd and who torched a police station in the capital the clash followed an incident on friday when security forces fired tear gas to break up a demonstration in a mosque and the city many tunisians remain unhappy with the way interim leaders are ruling the country since january's revolution that ousted president ben ali.

egyptian foreign minister has resigned ahead of a massive reshuffle spurred by renewed public protests you don't even in the job for a month but the interim prime minister has been forced to make changes after widespread anger over the government's record street crowds return to cairo as many believe little changed at the top since president mubarak was ousted. the u.s. first humanitarian delivery for somalia's drought victims has arrived just over a week since the a ban was lifted islamised insurgents which rule large parts of somalia impose restrictions on foreign aid two years ago calling them anti muslim that changed after more than ten million people became affected by the food crisis as a result of eastern africa's worst drought in decades. the taliban's calling the assassination of the afghan president's have brother its biggest achievement in a decade that kind of our province chief was gunned down by one of his bodyguards on tuesday journalist gerry van dyke who survived taliban captivity says the death

is a blow to the u.s. led war effort. well the cars it was not just the governor or the shadow governor of kandahar he was the most powerful and the most popular person throughout all of southern afghanistan this shows that right now with the canadian troops pulling out and with the us trying to now focus on eastern afghanistan feeling that they have controlled the south there is now a vacuum who is in power who can the west rely upon. and i've also heard and others have reported that he was responsible for perhaps starting to bring the taliban together with the united states to negotiate they killed the person who had all the information we do know that there's a power vacuum throughout all of southern afghanistan he who holds kandahar holds that country because in the one nine hundred eighty s. when i worked as a route newspaper reporter in afghanistan there were negotiations between the

mujahideen the united states the soviet union pakistan pakistan does not want to watch from the sidelines when pakistan says that there should be direct negotiations between the united states and the taliban what it is also saying is that pakistan wants to be at the table also because don't forget most of your viewers know this the leadership of the taliban is not in afghanistan like al-qaeda it is in pakistan it cannot operate there independently it has to have institutional backing and the struggle for land rights in israel there is one place that still a no go area fifty years ago was a thriving palestinian community but it was driven out and now israel's eyeing it up as a luxury getaway policy or has the story. this old in the mountains of jerusalem are the remains of a once bustling arab community only the memories of those who once lived here have survived intact i feel this now and have come back and to bring.

my village. to see the hobson's this rain also to remind. my father. grew up among the cacti and fick trees but in one nine hundred forty eight just before the state of israel was declared his family evacuated unlike the hundreds of arab villages that disappeared in forty eight and sixty seven most of the original houses of lifter are still here so the only we heard of shooting. and. they will shoot to the whole the whole day with the hope that they will shoot through the. our mother took us inside the room in a corner and then the playground so as to protect us here cook was one of seven hundred thousand palestinians who became a refugee in one nine hundred forty eight his childhood home was quickly absorbed

by the newly established jewish state almost inevitable as the man who lived his house in london for nevertheless if he was forced to do that just because he was reared and he is considered as absentee and he lost the property in the early one nine hundred fifty s. jews moved into the abandoned homes like you and your hundreds parents they were also refugees fleeing arab countries we life had become dangerous after israel was created these really government sent him to live in lifter the only says to prevent arab owners from returning when the came here on me for the i believe here years without water without electricity the came here. for the memory here is a very important most of the original two hundred jewish families lived because life in the mountains was difficult and the government was slow to develop the area no one has lived in these houses for forty six years all that remains are stone

walls where wild flowers and grass now grow live is empty. i didn't see that emptiness that the israeli government now plans to build more than two hundred luxury homes a chicago tell shops and a museum insisting they'll preserve the area's history we will find ourselves with a neighborhood where history has been conserved there will also be documentation and the story will be told of who lived there as we do in all the neighborhoods of jerusalem but maybe luckier could say it's palestinian land and a double injustice why you want to destroy our house and. yanni. for that there are three words came from anywhere in this thread why i come in my village and come back. with then back to my treatments and living. this new.

and so i'm going for palestinians lifting is a physical the mind of injustice and survival but for a fair number of israelis it's an eyesore and they'd rather not be reminded of what happened here every time they drive into jerusalem porta c. r. t. lifter. all of raises up today here in our he'll be back with a recap our top stories in just a few moments states. bringing

you the latest in science and psychology from the ground. we've got the future covered. motion would be soo much brighter than if you knew about sums from funds to freshen some. news from stunts on t.v. don't come. wealthy british style.

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welcome back here with r.t. here's a look added today's news and the week's top stories. recovery crews start the somber task of lifting the ship rapidly went down the volga river last sunday taking nearly one hundred thirty lives relatives and investigators hope for easing the vessel will help establish why the disaster occurred. tycoon publicly to save his stricken empire as loyal allies leave and police close in on both sides of the atlantic the news corp mobile faces a grilling by british m.p.'s and allegations of hacking the phones of nine eleven victims. losing battles but winning the war and leaving the rebels are in foreign

recognition and access to good obvious and they are fighters struggle to get to grips on the ground the opposition's failing to advance on the strategic eastern oil town suffering heavy casualties. plus a west empty wallet as america and the euro zone race to save their collapsing economies in the face of soaring debt implementing credit scores u.s. congress needs to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default while italy's on the verge of meeting. next an award winning documentary about one of the greatest environmental and human rights disasters in american history. i am up a leg

list places kidney. sled to start a leg. or longer. a. goal. each leg long leg. length leg.